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It’s been a few years – more than I’d like to admit – since I hand built my current server/workstation. It was way back in 2008 when living in Brisbane that I ponied up the cash to procure the appropriate hardware.

Fast forward to now, in 2014, the current rig is still functioning, albeit the hardware is very out of date.

The Quad Core processor is a pre i-Series Intel which does not support Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), and therefore does not support the next generation Hyper-V/hyper virtualization technologies which are standard today.

It has come time to invest in a new server platform, so that I can hand test the current OS specifications and anything coming down the line. As I have an existing (and fairly new) NAS, I don’t need a solid set of storage – I need memory and CPU grunt.

Now that’s not a bad start. The idea would be to expand memory to the full 64 GB in due course. This box doesn’t require an intensive GPU/graphics capability, and I’ll go with a moderately priced PSU, HDD and Graphics card. The motherboard isn’t the cheapest, but when I compared it to more expensive models, I couldn’t see the benefits in the “TUF” style boards.

Intel i7 Family Comparison Table

I’m keen to see how the hex core processor responds to load (say, from SQL Server) and what the efficiency of the memory will be for non-persisted (in memory) operations – particularly with SQL Server 2014.

If you have any opinions on the spec please leave a comment. Note that I’m on a budget, and I expect this rig to cost around AUD $1700.

Lastly – I think it would look pretty wicked in this case from Corsair:

About Rob Sanders

IT Professional and TOGAF 9 certified Enterprise Architect with nearly two decades of industry experience, 18 years in commercial software development and 11 years in IT consulting. Check out the
"About Rob" page for more information.

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